Automated Pallet Inspection

Pallets form the backbone of logistics and enable the transport of goods worldwide across countless processes. Over the course of their lifecycle, they travel hundreds of thousands of kilometers and carry heavy loads—so signs of wear and tear are inevitable. Protruding parts, the potential collapse of loads, or reduced machine compatibility and transport safety due to damaged pallets are risks that can cause massive disruptions to logistics processes, complete operational shutdowns, or damage during transport. Damage to the goods may also lead to customers refusing to accept them, resulting in financial losses.

Dr. Michael Kleinkes, founder and CEO of Breeze Innovations. © Breeze Innovations

For this reason, empty pallets are repeatedly inspected during the exchange process—though usually by hand, as Dr. Michael Kleinkes, one of the founders and managing directors of Breeze Innovations, explains. "These inspections are physically demanding and often subjective, which frequently leads to disputes during the handover of inspected and classified empty pallets. Our goal was to develop a classification system that would allow the quality of pallets to be assessed fully automatically, quickly, reliably, reproducibly, and, above all, objectively, with minimal effort,” says Kleinkes.

Using Hybrid Sensing Technology to Create a Digital Twin

The system makes it possible to capture pallet characteristics such as color, brightness, and three-dimensional dimensions. Many pooling companies mark their own pallet allocations with a specific color to make them easier to distinguish from competitors’ rental pallets. Brightness detection is also a key factor in classifying exchange pallets. When checking the geometric dimensions of the individual components—that is, the top boards, side boards, crossboards, and blocks—breeze-PAVE determines whether these elements comply with the specified geometric dimensions and required positions. If this is not the case, the corresponding areas are marked, and the pallet’s quality rating is lowered.

For data collection, Breeze relies on a multi-sensor system. Kleinkes explains: "As the pallets pass through the system, breeze-PAVE scans them from above, below, the sides, the front, and the back using multiple laser sensors, while simultaneously checking for sufficient brightness. This combination allows us to achieve a complete 360-degree digitalization of the physical objects, thereby creating a solid foundation for assessing the condition of the inspected new or used pallets.” The system even detects chemical residues as well as contamination from oil, paint, or adhered cardboard. The captured information is used to create a digital twin, which breeze-PAVE then evaluates in detail using software. In this step, deviations from specified quality criteria are automatically detected, the pallet is classified, and it is unambiguously assigned to quality classes A, B, C, or “defective.” The evaluation profiles can be flexibly adapted to the user’s specifications and cover both common standards for pallets—such as EPAL or India—as well as individual customer-specific requirements.

Over 1,000 pallets per hour

Compared to manual pallet inspection, the system’s most important feature is undoubtedly its objectivity, but precision and speed are also key factors: For each pallet, it captures several million 3D measurement points in a single pass without any cycle delay, evaluates them in less than a second, and detects not only obvious damage but even the smallest deviations. The system currently achieves a throughput of well over 1,000 pallets per hour, which can be inspected during normal operation—that is, as they pass by and without stopping the pallets being inspected. “Based on the evaluation time, we could theoretically inspect as many as 4,000 pallets per hour per system—but this rate is not at all feasible with current conveyor technologies. The precision and speed of breeze-PAVE are absolutely unattainable with the human eye,” says Kleinkes. The system is designed to be integrated into existing conveyor and sorting systems. According to the manufacturer, this requires approximately 1.5 meters of headroom above the conveyor system and a gap of about 25 centimeters in the line.